January is the heart of a Missouri winter, and it is one of the state's great wildlife months — the marshes of the northwest corner still hold the tail end of the snow goose and bald eagle spectacle, and the leafless Ozark woods make every bird and tree silhouette easy to read. Cold, clear nights also make this the best month of the year to read the bones of the landscape.
Week by week in January
January 1–7
- Bald eagles gather below the Mississippi River dams at Clarksville and the Old Chain of Rocks, fishing the open water as northern lakes freeze.
- Order seeds early before popular tomato and pepper varieties sell out, and prune dormant fruit trees on mild days.
- The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks around January 3 in a short, sharp burst; look toward the northeast after midnight from a dark Ozark sky.
- The bare bottomland sycamores glow with their white, peeling upper bark against the gray winter woods.
January 8–14
- Snow geese and Ross's geese may still raft at Loess Bluffs NWR in the northwest if the marsh has not frozen solid.
- Storage apples, winter squash, and frost-sweetened root crops carry the lean midwinter markets and high-tunnel greens.
- Orion stands high in the south after dark; trace down his belt to brilliant Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
- Dark eastern red cedars stand out on the glades and fencerows, their blue berry-like cones feeding waxwings and bluebirds.
January 15–21
- Cedar waxwing flocks strip the last fruit from crabapples and cedars, often with American robins joining the feast.
- Start onion and leek seeds indoors under lights now, the slowest transplants to get a head start on spring.
- The Pleiades star cluster and the V-shaped Hyades of Taurus ride high overhead in the early evening.
- Eastern bluebirds, the state bird, roam in loose winter flocks and shelter in roost boxes on the coldest nights.
January 22–28
- Open prairies in the north can hold wintering rough-legged hawks and the occasional short-eared owl coursing at dusk.
- Witch-hazel in the eastern Ozark woods may open its thin yellow ribbon petals on the mildest January days.
- Look for Gemini high in the east, its twin bright stars Castor and Pollux marking the heads of the figures.
- Keep mulch heaped over perennials and strawberry beds; Missouri's freeze-thaw heaves shallow roots right out of the ground.
Birds This Month
January is eagle season in Missouri. The state holds one of the largest wintering concentrations of bald eagles in the Lower 48, gathered below the locks and dams of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers where the open, churning water keeps fish available. Clarksville, the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge above St. Louis, Lock and Dam 24, and the big reservoirs like Mark Twain and Truman all reliably hold dozens of eagles perched in the bare sycamores along the ice line. Several towns run Eagle Days events this month.
In the northwest corner, Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (formerly Squaw Creek) may still hold huge rafts of snow geese and Ross's geese if the marsh has not frozen solid, with bald eagles working the edges. Across the rest of the state, the feeder yard is at its busiest — Northern cardinals, dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows, American tree sparrows, and roving flocks of cedar waxwings stripping the last fruit from crabapples and cedars.
Watch the woodland edges for Eastern bluebirds, the state bird, which stay all winter in loose flocks and shelter in roost boxes on the coldest nights. Open prairies in the north can hold rough-legged hawks and the occasional short-eared owl coursing at dusk. In some winters, irruptive finches — pine siskins and purple finches — push down from the north to feeders well into the Ozarks.
This month's tip: dress for the cold and go to moving water at first light. A clear, still January morning below a Mississippi River dam is the single best eagle-watching Missouri offers all year.
What's Blooming
January is the quietest wildflower month in Missouri, and across the state the ground is dormant or snow-covered. The prairies and Ozark glades are brown and gray, and the only true flowers you might find are on the warmest days at the very southern edge in the Bootheel. But quiet is not empty, and a winter walk rewards the patient eye.
The interest now is in structure and seed. Tallgrass prairie remnants and roadsides hold the dried architecture of blazing star, pale purple coneflower, and the tall plumes of big bluestem and Indian grass, all glowing copper and tan in low winter light. The seed heads feed goldfinches and juncos through the cold. On the Ozark glades, last summer's Missouri evening primrose rosettes flatten green against the warm dolomite, marking exactly where the May bloom will return.
Where to see it: this is a month to scout rather than gawk. Walk a prairie remnant or a glade trail and learn the dried stalks and overwintering rosettes — recognizing them now tells you where the spring explosion will happen. The witch-hazel in the eastern Ozark woods is the one true winter bloomer, opening its thin yellow ribbons of petals in sheltered hollows on mild days.
Garden This Month
January is the Missouri gardener's planning and infrastructure month, and that is exactly as it should be. With everything dormant, this is the ideal time to prune dormant fruit trees, grapes, and summer-flowering shrubs — you can read the branch structure clearly, and the plants will not bleed sap or stress in the cold. It is also the best window to plant bare-root and dormant stock in the milder south of the state, since these settle in best when set out into cool soil.
The rest of the month's work is preparation. Order seeds before the popular tomato and pepper varieties sell out, and start the slowest transplants — onions and leeks — indoors under lights now. Turn the compost, clean and sharpen tools, and keep mulch heaped over perennial crowns, strawberry beds, and young tree roots; Missouri's freeze-thaw cycles heave shallow roots right out of the ground if they are left bare. If a thaw tempts you, resist planting tender crops — the average last frost is still many weeks away across the entire state.
Zone 5b (northern Missouri): the coldest corner of the state is deep in dormancy around Kirksville and the northern prairies. This is strictly a planning month — order seeds early before popular varieties sell out, prune dormant fruit trees and shade trees on mild days, and keep mulch heaped over perennial crowns and strawberry beds against hard freezes and frost heave.
Zone 6a (central Missouri, Columbia and the Ozark border): still firmly dormant, but the days are lengthening. Prune dormant apple and pear trees and grapes now while the structure is visible and sap is down, and start onion and leek seeds indoors under lights so transplants are ready for an early-spring planting.
Zone 6b (southern Ozarks and St. Louis area): the milder south can sneak in a little outdoor work in a warm spell — set out a cold frame, plant bare-root and dormant fruit trees, and overwinter spinach and mache under row cover. Otherwise, focus on pruning, tool maintenance, and starting slow transplants indoors.
What's at the Farmers Market
January is a lean month at Missouri markets, dominated by storage crops and the few growers running winter high tunnels. The stars now are the things that keep: storage apples from the fall harvest, winter squash like butternut and acorn, and a deep bench of root vegetables — sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, and parsnips, the last of which turn noticeably sweeter after a hard frost.
Where high tunnels are running, you will find cold-hardy greens that the cold actually improves — kale, spinach, mache, and collards — along with stored onions, garlic, and potatoes. Look too for Missouri pecans and black walnuts from the fall, and for jars of local honey and sorghum that carry the markets through the cold season.
For selection and storage: choose apples and squash that are firm with no soft spots and keep them cool and dry; store carrots and beets with their tops removed in the crisper so the roots stay firm; and keep onions, garlic, and potatoes in a cool, dark, ventilated spot — never together, since onions hasten potato sprouting. Greens should be crisp and unwilted; store them dry in the refrigerator and use them within a few days.
Night Sky This Month
January has the longest nights of the Missouri year, which makes it the easiest month for stargazing — full dark arrives by early evening, and the brilliant winter constellations ride high in the south. Orion the Hunter dominates, his three-star belt pointing down to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, glittering low in Canis Major. Above him burn the orange shoulder-star Betelgeuse, blue-white Rigel, the tight little cluster of the Pleiades, and the V-shaped face of Taurus marked by reddish Aldebaran.
The year's first meteor shower, the Quadrantids, peaks in the first days of January, typically around January 3. It can be sharp and rich but its strong window is narrow — often just a few hours — and it radiates from the northern sky below the handle of the Big Dipper. Like all showers it is best after midnight from a dark site with no Moon. The fainter winter Milky Way arches overhead through Orion and Gemini on a truly clear, dark night.
The dark hollows of the Ozarks and Mark Twain National Forest, far from the glow of St. Louis and Kansas City, offer Missouri's best winter skies, and a cold, dry January night there is breathtaking. Because the exact Quadrantid peak and the positions of the planets shift each year, check the printable Missouri night-sky guide for this year's specific viewing nights and planet visibility from your latitude.
Butterflies & Pollinators
January is the quietest butterfly month in Missouri, and across the state you will see essentially none on the wing. The cold puts the season fully on pause — our butterflies overwinter as eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises, or hidden adults tucked into bark crevices and leaf litter, waiting for the warmth of spring. Even on a mild, sunny January day, the prairies, glades, and gardens stay empty of fliers.
A few of our species pass the winter as adults in hiding. The mourning cloak and the question mark shelter behind loose bark and in woodpiles, and in an unseasonable thaw a mourning cloak can occasionally flap through bare Ozark woods on the warmest afternoon — the only butterfly you have any real chance of seeing this month. The famous monarch migration funneled south through Missouri back in autumn and is now clustered in the Mexican overwintering forests, far from our frozen state.
To prepare for the season ahead: January is the month to plan the butterfly garden, not to watch it. Use the quiet to map out beds of native milkweed for monarchs, parsley-family plants for black swallowtails, and a long succession of nectar — coneflower, blazing star, wild bergamot, and asters — so the garden is ready when the first spring fliers return.
What to plant for them is in the Missouri native plants guide
Trees This Month
January shows you the bones of the Missouri tree world. The hardwoods are fully bare, and that bareness is the point — without leaves you can read the architecture of the great bottomland sycamores, with their unmistakable white, peeling upper bark glowing against the gray winter woods, and trace the rugged silhouettes of white oak, shagbark hickory with its shaggy peeling plates, and the Ozark black walnut.
The green in a January Missouri landscape comes from the evergreens. Eastern red cedar stands dark and dense on old fields, glades, and fencerows across the state, its blue berry-like cones feeding the wintering cedar waxwings and bluebirds. In the Ozarks, native shortleaf pine — the state's only native pine — holds its needles dark green against the bare hardwood ridges. Down in the Bootheel, the bald cypress stand leafless and gray over the swamp water, their flared buttresses and knees fully exposed. The state tree, the flowering dogwood, waits as a small gray understory tree, its plump flower buds already set for April.
The Missouri native plants guide covers what grows with them
Weather & Daylight
Across Missouri, a typical January day averages a high near 40°F and a low near 21°F, with about 2.1 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Cold, crisp air settles in with highs near 40 and nights dropping into the low 20s under a dry chill.
| Average high | 40°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 21°F |
| Precipitation | 2.1 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:26 CT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 17:12 CT |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (CT).
Next month's version of this page, by email
One short note when Missouri's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
Go deeper with the Missouri guides
The complete Missouri birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: January in Montana · January in Nebraska · January in Nevada